Tuesday, December 22, 2015

As we just finished the last Sunday of Advent and get ready
to plunge into Christmas, there is no getting away from the holiday music on
the radio(some of which was playing since Thanksgiving).While we have traditional and secular songs abound,
the occasional religious one will appear.One that is particular striking is “Mary did you know?” where in the version
I most recently heard Kenny Rogers and Wynonna Judd sung speculations of what Mary
may have or may not have known about the child Jesus.

While I’m tempted to write off the entire song as
speculative theology which discounts the human nature of Jesus.Which makes the “No crying he
makes” line from Away in the Manger theologically inaccurate.I would like to delve into what Mary actually
did know and how this knowledge might have affected her.

If we start for the stance that Mary is a mortal woman, she
can only know things based on what she is told and can perceive with her
senses, just like you and me.

Infancy narrative in Luke

In the gospel of Luke we have the infancy narrative of the Annunciation
by the angel Gabriel.Beside explaining
to her that she is favored by God what does the angel tell her about her soon
to be conceived child?

And behold, you will conceive in your womb
and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus.32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the
Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David;33 and He will reign
over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end.” Luke
1: 31-33

The angel answered and said to her, “The
Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow
you; and for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God. Luke
1:35

From this we see that Mary knows some things about the
divinity of Jesus:

He will be great

He will be called the
Son of the Most High

The Lord God will give
Him the throne of His father David

He will reign over the
house of Jacob forever

His kingdom will have no
end

The holy Child shall be
called the Son of God

That is a lot of information and it is not clear how much Mary
understood since the Angel did not elaborate on the details of all of these
things, even though she willingly accepted the will of God.

Mary Encounters Elizabeth

When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the
baby leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.42 And she cried out
with a loud voice and said, “Blessed are
you among women, and blessed is
the fruit of your womb!43 And how has it happened to me, that the mother of my Lord would come to me Luke
1:41-43

Mary knows that the child causes others to be filled with
the Holy Spirit and Elizabeth recognizes the child as Lord.

Mary and the Shepherds

But the angel said to them, “Do not be
afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all
the people;11 for
today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the
Lord. Luke 2:10-11

When they had seen this, they made known
the statement which had been told them about this Child.18 And all who heard it
wondered at the things which were told them by the shepherds.19 But Mary treasured all
these things, pondering them in her heart. Luke 2:17-19

From the shepherds Mary
learns:

Jesus is Savior

Jesus is Christ the Lord

Presentation of Jesus

29 “Now Lord, You are releasing
Your bond-servant to depart in peace,According to Your word;30 For my eyes have seen
Your salvation,31 Which You have
prepared in the presence of all peoples,32 A Light of revelation to
the Gentiles,And the glory of Your people Israel.”

33 And His father
and mother were amazed at the things which were being said about Him.34 And Simeon blessed
them and said to Mary His mother, “Behold, this Child is appointed for the
fall and rise of many in Israel, and for a sign to be opposed—35 and a sword will pierce
even your own soul—to the end that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.”
Luke 2:29-35

Mary realizes in amazement :

Jesus will be a revelation to the Gentiles

The rise and fall of Israel

A revealer of hearts

Her own heart will be
pierced

Finding in the Temple at Jerusalem

And He said to them, “Why is it that you were looking for Me? Did you not know that I had
to be in My Father’s house?”50 But they did not understand the statement which
He had made to them.51 And He went down with them
and came to Nazareth, and He continued in subjection to them; and His mother treasured
all these things in her heart. Luke 2:49-51

We see that Mary had an understanding based
on what she was told by the angels, shepherds and prophets but not of the
specifics.Even during the first miracle
at the wedding at Cana, she doesn’t come out and say “I know who you are, can
you miraculously make wine” she merely told the servants to do whatever he tells
you.

So when Kenny Rogers asks “Mary, did
you know that your Baby Boy would one day walk on water?” and “Mary, did you
know that your Baby Boy would save our sons and daughters?” The answer has a
mixed, yes she knew he was the destined to be the savior of the world,
but did not know the specific path that would take or the road to Jerusalem
that he would follow to give us all that salvation.Yes she did know that her Baby Boy is heaven's perfect Lamb and the
sleeping Child you're holding is the Great, I Am.

Wednesday, December 16, 2015

As we wrap up Advent and begin to look forward to Christmas
(liturgically speaking, Wal mart has been look at Christmas since October) I
wanted to give a more theological look at the nativity and how this one baby
coming into the world brought us salvation.

Incarnation

Incarnation literally means to become flesh.So the God that created the world in Genesis
through speaking things into being takes on flesh.As John says in chapter 1 “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us”.This God that had been transcendent throughout human history since the falloff
mankind literally takes on flesh to come dwell with His creation.Hence we have the story of the nativity.This is the reason the world rejoiced because
God came down from heaven to dwell with us and he came with a purpose that
would be seen later.

The child in the manger is not just a baby he
is God.How can he be both human and
God?Our salvation depends on him being
both God and man, if he is not both we are not saved.The theological term for the nature of Jesus
is Hypostatic union, the
combination of both humanity and divinity into one person.

Hypostatic union

Throughout Church history there has been debate on the
nature of Jesus.Theologian and Churhc
Councils have were debating this in the 3rd and 4th century.So as not to get too deep into the argument and
heresies, one misconception is Jesus is God but puts on humanity like a coat
and is not really human.On the other
end of the spectrum is that Jesus was a very wise person and not really God
akin to the prophets of the Old Testament.Both of these interpretations are incorrect.

The original covenant was between God and man in the garden.Adam and Eve broke that covenant and mankind’s
relationship with God was permanently severed. Salivation is not something we can do on our own, salvation only
comes from God.This is where the nature
of Jesus is important for our salvation.

If Jesus is only God and not man, God would die for himself and
human would not be in the equation and would not be saved or back in right relation
with God.

If Jesus is only a enlightened scholar, then only a human
died and there is no divinity in the sacrifice and God in not involved and it
does not rise to the level of God.

Therefore to be at the level of God and for humans to be
saved Jesus (the sacrifice) had to be both fully human and fully divine.If that is not the case it doesn’t work.

So the baby in the cradle fully human in all ways except sin
and fully divine and we see both natures throughout Jesus life. He grows in wisdom and has emotions like anger
and sadness (human nature) but he also does miracles and healings (divine
nature).

To bear this perfect hypostatic union God-man person, not just
any womb will do.Sure God could have “Poof”
appeared in 1st century Palestine. But
he chose to come into the world as baby.To do that he needed a perfect unblemished vessel.As Jesus is the New Covenant he needed an arc
similar to the arc of the covenant of the Old Testament (or from the Indiana
Jones movie for those with more of a pop cultural understanding of things).To be unblemished it had to be virgin and
without sin.God did preplanning for this
when Mary was born without sin in the Immaculate
Conception.

Immaculate Conception

Mary was born into world without the stain of original sin
that everyone is born.We have this stain
removed through the sacrament of baptism.By Mary not having original sin the God –man is able to gestate in an unblemished
womb capable of holding God.If Mary had
not been born without sin she would not have been the unblemished arc of the covenant
that God needed to bring himself into the world.As Jesus was conceived through the Holy
Spirit and his father is God we have the Virgin
Birth.

Virgin Birth

Jesus is the Son of God conceived through the Holy Spirit.The skeptic will say how is that possible?Mary asked the same question in Luke 1 34:35

“Mary said to the
angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?”The angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come
upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that
reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God.”

So Jesus the hypostatic union of both God and man comes into
the world to dwell with us and ultimately to save us from our sins and bring us
back into right relationship with God.

So when you see a nativity scene this season, recognize the
gravity of the scene.This cannot be diluted
into a pretty scene of a child being born in a barn.But a powerful scene of the creator of the
universe who spoke the world into being, becomes human while maintaining his
divinity, to get us back in right relation with Himself.

Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Since we were children we have all had to clean our room. It was not fun and the more you let it go the more work it was to get it clean. This is true with all aspects of life. We have to keep our selves physically, emotionally and spiritual clean. Lent is an excellent time to take a look at you spiritual "house". Perhaps you just got caught up in the everyday routine in life and have fallen away from practices that once brought you closer to God or perhaps you never really had a connection boarded up your spiritual "house" in college but are starting to wonder more about it.

Tips for cleaning your spiritual house.

1) Start small - Don't go from nothing to trying to read all of the books Thomas Aquinas wrote or you will burn out. Pick on small thing and do it. After you do it and found it worked for you try adding something else as well.

2) Practice - Clean you spiritual house takes practice. You may not feel fulfilled the first or second time you try soemthing but if you keep at it, you may make a supernatural connection that wasn't there before.

3) Make it a habit - Every morning you have a routine. For example you get out of bed and go brush your teeth. My body naturally strolls from my bed to the sink because it is used to doing it everyday. So must we do with out spiritual routine. If I plan on doing 10 minutes of spiritual reading every night by 4 out of the seven day I watch TV then go to bed, it won't be a habit. Not that you have to do the same thing every night but make a plan and stick to it. Perhaps it is a rosary on Wednesday, make sure you set a reminder on Tuesday night so that it become a habit. Once you make it a habit you will miss it when you don't do it. If I went to breakfast without brushing my teeth, I can't eat until I do because of the habit that has been instilled of years and years of brushing when I get up.

By following these three steps you can begin cleaning your spiritual house. Depending on the last time you addressed this, your task could be large cleaning or it could just need a quick tidying up. Everyone need to look at their spiritual life on a regular basis and the ore you work on it the cleaner it will become.

Friday, February 6, 2015

You know its not Christmas any more, the priest has gone back to his green cloths and you are settling into ordinary time. Then it his you lent starts in less than two weeks and it has crept up on you. But fear not, there is still plenty of time for you to prepare and get ready.

"What are you doing for Lent?” he asks me. Or the more prevalent “What
are you giving up for Lent this year?” As innocent as these questions
seem, I find them problematic for several reasons. The motivations
behind the asker may be only curiosity, but often times it goes beyond
that. The asker may be soliciting at response so that they can compare
their sacrifice to God to mine and see “who God will be more pleased
with”. Other times they are just asking so they can tell me what they
are planning to. “Oh, that’s great you’re doing that, let me tell you
what I am going to do.” Neither of these things helps us do what the
real mission of Lent is.

The Church sets aside a large chunk of the
year so that we might grow closer to God through penance, sacrifice and
almsgiving. Whether this is through sacrifice or through giving more of
one’s self doesn’t matter. Less important is the means of which
someone else is trying to accomplish this same thing. This is true in
the fact that what fits one person’s spirituality and is bad for someone
else’s. You are only drinking water for the entire 40 days, that’s
great. If I don’t drink some kind of juice in the morning to give my
blood sugar a boost I get a headache and am cranky the rest of the day.
That won’t help me or anyone else. Your doing the Rosary everyday for
Lent, that’s great. Someone else finds the Rosary repetitive and gets
easily distracted, they prefers the Divine Mercy Chaplet. That is
better for them.

My point is that Lent is not a time to show off or put
our piety on display for others to marvel at. It is a time to renew
our relationship with God through self-giving in thanksgiving for the
actions Christ accomplished in the cross through the means that do that
best for our self. Maybe your Lent is doing nothing external, but
taking a long hard look at your internal self and seeing what can be
improved, then doing it, that’s great too.

So, when some one asks me
this year what I am doing for Lent, I will tell them “Taking these 40
days to drawn closer to Jesus Christ in the way that works for me and by
imitating his love for others in my everyday life.” Hope you have a
good fruitful Lenten Journey

About Me

I'm John a Catholic trying to live out my faith in the world. I discerned my calling in the seminary for three life changing years. I have always felt that God called me in and God called me out. I have a theological background but I am living my faith out in the world. I have fond memories of my time in the seminary but know I am called to a husband and father. I hope this blog provides some help to you in your faith journey and that you can get some incites and tips to use in your life.